I've researched and googled alot of articles guiding us where should I, a Linux newbie, start learning about Linux. It gave me varied answers and suggestions. I'm lost. But somehow I have a list of things that needs alot of attention if I want to learn Linux seriously. My goal for now is to be able to use ArchLinux. I've heard that it's fast, and you choose what apps you want to install but it's not for newbies. So here I present you a list of things I should get my dirty hands on:

1. Terminal - like every 'Top Tips for a Newbie Linux' article I've read, everybody said that I have to learn the Terminal. And of course, installing ArchLinux is done without a GUI like Linux Mint so I have to learn it and be proficient with it as much as I can.

2. Learning Package Managers - having a firm grasp of the two major package management system in Linux surely helps. I still have yet to learn about .deb package system and its CLI and GUI front-ends as all I can do right now is just type "sudo apt-get install package" without knowing what's really happening behind those commands.

3. Dependencies - I want to know all about these dependencies but they say that they don't have it in apt-based distros which they say is a good thing. but I want to explore it so I'm considering installing openSUSE which uses .rpm packages and they say that there is this "dependency hell" thing. (at the same time, it uses KDE which I haven't tried yet. and they claim that they have fast boot time.)

4. Compiling from Source - I want to try this just for the sake of self-completion.

5. Boot Managers and Bootloaders - I'm dual booting using Windows Boot Manager passing to GRUB to load Linux Mint. I want to try to remove Windows Boot Manager and just use GRUB for a change.

6. Home Network - I don't have any experience with this. I want to be able to use this program they call Samba.

These are what's on my mind right now. It's a short list maybe because I'm still so young a Linux user. So can you please recommend some more? and please someone correct me if any of those in the list is wrong. thank you

You can learn a great deal using any Linux distro, it's just that some REQUIRE you to delve deeper, and they do not hold your hand with a lot of GUI tools. Arch is a fine distro, but some find the frequent updates on the bleeding edge to be somewhat irritating, if you're trying to keep a stable system.

You might find Slackware interesting. It's relatively easy to install compared to Arch, requires that you sharpen your terminal skills in order to configure the system, does not rely on package management, as such, and dependencies are handled manually. You can, and many slackers do, compile from source.

+1 for Slackware. Actually, you can't "learn" package management as it varies between distributions a lot.(Although things seem to get together slowly; recent FreeBSD [higher-level UNIX system btw] releases added some "apt" clone called pkgng.)

OTOH, Arch Linux is surely "higher level" as it requires some manual work. Also, you can perfectly use Mint on a higher level if you want to. But it is inviting not to try that, I know.

JWJones wrote:You can learn a great deal using any Linux distro, it's just that some REQUIRE you to delve deeper, and they do not hold your hand with a lot of GUI tools. Arch is a fine distro, but some find the frequent updates on the bleeding edge to be somewhat irritating, if you're trying to keep a stable system.

You might find Slackware interesting. It's relatively easy to install compared to Arch, requires that you sharpen your terminal skills in order to configure the system, does not rely on package management, as such, and dependencies are handled manually. You can, and many slackers do, compile from source.

/dev/urandom wrote:+1 for Slackware. Actually, you can't "learn" package management as it varies between distributions a lot.(Although things seem to get together slowly; recent FreeBSD [higher-level UNIX system btw] releases added some "apt" clone called pkgng.)

OTOH, Arch Linux is surely "higher level" as it requires some manual work. Also, you can perfectly use Mint on a higher level if you want to. But it is inviting not to try that, I know.

so Slackware is midway between a beginner distro and ArchLinux? but I heard that Slackware is for the elites like Gentoo. as for the package management, I just want to learn deb or rpm as a base on how package management works. I know that Arch uses packman so when I get to start learning arch, I can use my knowledge in deb or rpm to work with packman.

Gentoo is an adaption of FreeBSD's ports system, but with a Linux kernel. You can compile anything you want, and you are highly advised to; still there are also binary packages. (Now why would anyone want to use Gentoo instead of FreeBSD anyway?)

Slackware is "higher-level" than Arch Linux. Arch, at least, has sort of a package repository (AUR).

Gentoo is an adaption of FreeBSD's ports system, but with a Linux kernel. You can compile anything you want, and you are highly advised to; still there are also binary packages. (Now why would anyone want to use Gentoo instead of FreeBSD anyway?)

Slackware is "higher-level" than Arch Linux. Arch, at least, has sort of a package repository (AUR).

adrianHOOHAHA wrote:I've researched and googled alot of articles guiding us where should I, a Linux newbie, start learning about Linux. It gave me varied answers and suggestions. I'm lost. But somehow I have a list of things that needs alot of attention if I want to learn Linux seriously. My goal for now is to be able to use ArchLinux. I've heard that it's fast, and you choose what apps you want to install but it's not for newbies. So here I present you a list of things I should get my dirty hands on:

1. Terminal - like every 'Top Tips for a Newbie Linux' article I've read, everybody said that I have to learn the Terminal. And of course, installing ArchLinux is done without a GUI like Linux Mint so I have to learn it and be proficient with it as much as I can.

2. Learning Package Managers - having a firm grasp of the two major package management system in Linux surely helps. I still have yet to learn about .deb package system and its CLI and GUI front-ends as all I can do right now is just type "sudo apt-get install package" without knowing what's really happening behind those commands.

3. Dependencies - I want to know all about these dependencies but they say that they don't have it in apt-based distros which they say is a good thing. but I want to explore it so I'm considering installing openSUSE which uses .rpm packages and they say that there is this "dependency hell" thing. (at the same time, it uses KDE which I haven't tried yet. and they claim that they have fast boot time.)

4. Compiling from Source - I want to try this just for the sake of self-completion.

5. Boot Managers and Bootloaders - I'm dual booting using Windows Boot Manager passing to GRUB to load Linux Mint. I want to try to remove Windows Boot Manager and just use GRUB for a change.

6. Home Network - I don't have any experience with this. I want to be able to use this program they call Samba.

These are what's on my mind right now. It's a short list maybe because I'm still so young a Linux user. So can you please recommend some more? and please someone correct me if any of those in the list is wrong. thank you

Everythingf you have listed can be learned relatively easily with Mint with the exception of different package managers. You might find it easier to learn with a friendly base distro as opposed to the more "advanced" release. However if you really want to play under the hood you might consider Linux From Scratch http://www.linuxfromscratch.org. Enjoy

If you don't like it, make something betterIf you can't make something better, adaptIf you can't do either ball your panties up and cry.

Complaining is like masticating most anyone can do it.However doing it in public is really hardcore.

I don't accept the "higher level" notion. I've run Arch and other distros that require more effort to install and maintain, but I don't think that puts them at the top of the food chain. I require an OS that I can use to get things done, and that means something stable and low-maintenance...that's Mint!

Macmeister wrote:I require an OS that I can use to get things done, and that means something stable and low-maintenance...that's Mint!

Yup, Mint is great in that respect. I know that when I need to get up and running on a system, fast, without too much muss and fuss, and everything will just work the way it should, OOTB, I go with Mint. I have it installed on my ThinkPad T61.

For my continued Linux education (learning and tinkering), on a rock-solid stable base, on a desktop machine, I have Slackware 14. Slackware is probably as close to a "pure" Linux experience as you are likely to find. It will not hold your hand, but once you set things up the way you want it, it will just work, work fast, and work stable.

Now, having said all this, I do have to say that my "800 lb. gorilla" for productivity is Mac OSX 10.6.8. I work in the print industry, so there's no getting around that! It's often not as fast as I'd like, but it is very stable.

Macmeister wrote:I don't accept the "higher level" notion. I've run Arch and other distros that require more effort to install and maintain, but I don't think that puts them at the top of the food chain. I require an OS that I can use to get things done, and that means something stable and low-maintenance...that's Mint!

by higher level, I mean in terms of Linux education just like JWJones said. but when it comes to productivity, that's Mint!

You can learn a lot that will prepare you for any Linux distro just from using Mint. You can learn a lot more by just installing and using various distros -- not even necessarily something like Arch or Slackware, but just distros that use different package management approaches. You'll learn a lot about grub by multi-booting a few different distros. You'll learn a lot about using the terminal just by doing it and reading the man pages.

Debian Stable would would an excellent place to start. Also, I've been using openSUSE -- no dependency hell stuff going on there, maybe in the distant past or something.